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Thursday, February 11, 2016

Two longtime Harford County sheriff's deputies were shot to death in broad daylight Wednesday at a busy shopping center by a man officials believe was targeting police, according to authorities.

The 68-year-old suspect, whom officials described as a vagrant, was also killed in the confrontation in Abingdon, a closely knit community 30 miles northeast of Baltimore.

The mayhem erupted at a Panera Bread restaurant shortly before noon in the Boulevard at Box Hill shopping center.

Officials declined to name the two deputies who were killed. Sheriff Jeffrey R. Gahler said one had served on the force for 30 years and was assigned to the courts services division, and the other had served for 16 years and was assigned to the community services division.

"Today is a sad day for the Harford County sheriff's office and the citizens of Harford County, who we are sworn to serve," Gahler told reporters Wednesday afternoon, and bowed his head. "It is with great sadness that I tell you both deputies who were shot earlier today have succumbed to their injuries."

The suspect was identified as David Brian Evans. Gahler said there were two warrants for Evans' arrest — a criminal warrant for allegedly assaulting a police officer in Florida and a civil warrant issued in Harford County.

Gahler said he believed Evans targeted one of the deputies inside the Panera "because he was in a police uniform."

The deputies are believed to be the first in Harford to be killed by gunfire on duty in more than a century...